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Twin Suicide Bombings Kill 20 in Cameroon


Northern Cameroon
Northern Cameroon

Cameroon says it has evacuated at least 200 wounded people after twin suicide bomb attacks in Kerawa on its northern border with Nigeria's Borno state left at least 20 people dead. The attack has been blamed on the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram.

Cameroon's government spokesman and communication minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said the wounded have been moved to hospitals in neighboring towns as the lone hospital in Kerawa is not large enough. Issa Tchiroma said the attacks at the Kerawa market were carried out by Boko Haram fighters.

He said the first bomb was detonated by a young girl in the section of the market where women sell millet and groundnuts, and the second was detonated by a man near the military base where people had taken those wounded in the first explosion for treatment.

He said about 20 of the victims are in critical condition.

In July, about 60 Cameroonians were killed along the central African nation's northern border with Nigeria's Borno state, a stronghold of Boko Haram. The insurgents used teenage female suicide bombers in four attacks. Cameroon in response sent back about 5,000 Nigerians who claimed to be fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency but refused to go to refugee camps.

Boko Haram, which was founded in northern Nigeria, attacks Cameroon regularly for supporting the Nigerian military's mission to crush the group.

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